The subject matter disclosed herein relates to non-destructive testing and inspection of a part and, more particularly, to a system that uses multi-axis robotic devices to perform inspection by passing a signal through the part.
Non-destructive inspection (“NDI inspection”) involves examining a part without harming the structure or requiring significant disassembly. This type of inspection is advantageous for many applications that require a thorough inspection of the exterior and/or interior of a structure. For example, the aircraft industry uses NDI inspection to inspect aircraft parts for internal and external damage, anomalies, and flaws.
Technicians can perform NDI inspections by manually moving an appropriate sensor over the structure. Examples of NDI inspections can use a variety of sensors including pulse-echo (PE), through-transmission (TT), and shear-wave sensors to obtain data, such as for thickness gauging, detection of laminar anomalies and porosity, and/or crack detection in the part. Manual inspection requires a technician to move the sensor over the structure. In some inspections, the technician must also watch a display to determine the location of the anomalies, if any, in the structure. The quality of the inspection, therefore, depends in large part upon the technician's performance and skill.
Although use of automation (e.g., robots) can remedy many deficiencies of manual inspection, multi-axis robots find little use in NDI inspection to manipulate the sensor relative to the part because of the inability to determine the exact position (relative to the part) of the sensor in real-time. Rather, programs to operate multi-axis robots simply instruct the robot where to go, but not to report the relative position of the sensor. This limitation makes challenging the ability to obtain the position of the sensor with respect to the part, e.g., in three-dimensional space, as the sensor acquires data. Moreover, the limitations of multi-axis robots are more likely to limit application of these robots in combination with through-transmission (TT) sensors, where the ultrasonic signal from the sensor passes through the part from one robot to another.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.